200 Pumpkins Stolen From Northern Illinois Farm

Illinois pumpkin farmers are facing a tough fall after unpredictable weather shrank some crops, but one northern Illinois farm is dealing with an even bigger pumpkin problem: someone stole nearly 200 of them.

Rough Pumpkin Season in Illinois

If you grow pumpkins in Illinois, you already know that getting those big, beautiful orange pumpkins to October isn't always as easy as planting a few seeds and waiting for fall.

I know this firsthand because every year I grow pumpkins in a little patch in my backyard. Normally, I end up with around 25 pumpkins.

This year?

Seven.

SEVEN.

I'm far from an experienced farmer, but I do know that the dry conditions followed by very wet weather we saw in Illinois this summer made pumpkin growing a challenge. So, when I heard that some Illinois farmers are dealing with smaller-than-usual pumpkin crops this year, I completely understand the frustration. Then I read about the pumpkin theft one farm in Capron recently suffered, and I immediately got mad.

Hundreds of Pumpkins Stolen from Capron, IL Farm

For Meyers Family Farms in Capron, the pumpkin problems didn't stop with Mother Nature.

Someone apparently decided to help themselves to the harvest and stole around 200 pumpkins from the farm!

Just so we're clear, this theft really hurts because Meyers Family Farms is a small, family farm in their first fall harvest season.

Imagine spending months planting, watering, weeding and caring for hundreds of pumpkins, only to have someone show up and take a huge portion of your first harvest.

Are the thieves selling these pumpkins at their own farm stands because their own pumpkin crops failed to produce this year? Why would someone need hundreds of pumpkins?!

To make the situation even worse, apparently Meyers Family Farms isn't the only local farm that fell victim to theft this fall.

If you see men around 30 years old driving a silver, four-door truck loaded with pumpkins in the Rockford area this fall, please contact law enforcement immediately so this pumpkin-stealing madness can come to an end!